Hard work, not massaging statistics, has helped York District Hospital reduce its waiting list, said Trust officials today, as national figures were published.

Despite opposition parties and doctors accusing the Government of distorting clinical priorities throughout the NHS as a whole, senior staff at the hospital say their figures continue to tumble in real terms.

With a current waiting list of 7,073 patients, the hospital is still hopeful of reaching its March-end target of 6,756.

Spokesman Susan Acott said: "I know some people think figures manipulation goes on but we don't have waiting lists to get on waiting lists or anything like that.

"We mostly have achieved our figures by a lot of extra work by our hard-working staff.

"At the moment we are just a bit behind the figure we had intended for this time, but we can still make the target."

Health Secretary Frank Dobson had promised to reduce the number of people waiting for treatment in England to below 1,158,000 - the level he inherited from the Tories in May 1997.

The Government has invested £320 million in slashing waiting lists - a policy it believes is pivotal to improving the health service.

In January, the last month for which figures are available, the number of people waiting for treatment fell by 14,200, just 1,400 short of the Government's target.

The queues have consistently fallen since the initiative was introduced except during the NHS winter crisis in December when operations were cancelled due to emergency admissions and numbers rose by 11,500.

But the project has caused controversy - with the Conservatives accusing the Government of "fiddling the figures" and doctors complaining that clinical priorities are being distorted.

Mr Dobson said: "When this Government makes promises, we keep them. In our manifesto we promised that NHS waiting lists would be shorter.

"We said it would take time. It has taken time. We said it wouldn't be easy. It hasn't been easy.

"These record results have come about because the one million staff of the NHS have made massive efforts, with massive dedication and skill, to deliver what everyone in the country wants - fewer people on NHS waiting lists."

The number of people waiting more than 12 months for treatment fell by 7,000 to 50,900 - the lowest figure since June 1997.

No patient was waiting more than 18 months for treatment and queues are now at their lowest levels since December 1996.

Mr Dobson denied that fewer outpatients had been treated in the drive to cut waiting lists.

He said that by the end of April the NHS would have seen 137,000 more outpatients than the previous year.

And he pledged that 300,000 more first-time outpatients would be seen next year - adding up to 11 million in 2000.

Mr Dobson said: "Outpatient work is a key part of the NHS for us. While half of all outpatient appointments do not lead to an admission to hospital, that does not lessen their importance."

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